Coming off an emphatic shootout win over the St. Louis Blues, the Philadelphia Flyers now travel further south and take on the Dallas Stars. It’s a much bigger and better opponent in this second half of a back-to-back, so the Flyers might have their work cut out for them.
Puck drop: 8:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: NBCSP
📻: 97.5 The Fanatic
Pregame reading
- On the prospect side of things, Jett Luchanko absolutely dominated in his Friday night collision with fellow Flyers first-rounder Jack Nesbitt. The 19-year-old scored a goal and earned three assists. [BSH]
- Staying in the prospect world, over in Allentown the Lehigh Valley Phantoms are surging up the standings and the offense is being led by two rookies in Alex Bump and Denver Barkey on the first line. Really fun things are happening in the AHL. [BSH]
Pregame watching
By the numbers
Philadelphia Flyers – 9-5-3 (5th in Metro)
Goals: Owen Tippett/Trevor Zegras (6)
Assists: Trevor Zegras (13)
Points: Trevor Zegras (19)
Dallas Stars — 11-4-3 (2nd in Central)
Goals: Wyatt Johnston (11)
Assists: Mikko Rantanen (16)
Points: Mikko Rantanen (25)
Projected lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Matvei Michkov – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny
Owen Tippett – Christian Dvorak – Trevor Zegras
Tyson Foerster – Noah Cates – Bobby Brink
Garnet Hathaway – Rodrigo Abols – Nic Deslauriers
Cam York – Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler – Jamie Drysdale
Emil Andrae – Noah Juulsen
Dan Vladar
(Sam Ersson)
Dallas Stars
Sam Steel — Wyatt Johnston — Mikko Rantanen
Jason Robertson — Roope Hintz — Tyler Seguin
Oskar Back — Justin Hryckowian — Mavrik Bourque
Colin Blackwell — Radek Faksa — Nathan Bastian
Esa Lindell — Miro Heiskanen
Thomas Harley — Ilya Lyubushkin
Lian Bichsel — Alex Petrovic
Jake Oettinger
(Casey DeSmith)
Storylines to watch
If Flyers have a chance, it will be because of depth
The Stars are doing well (obviously) but looking down their lineup and seeing that they are experiencing a minor injury bug, if the Flyers have a chance to win this game tonight it will be due to their immense depth. The Noah Cates line will probably try their best to take on either of the top two forward lines but that leaves either Matvei Michkov and Travis Konecny, or Owen Tippett and Trevor Zegras to really chew off forward lines that feature Radek Faksa and a rookie in Justin Hryckowian that is a good developmental story but shouldn’t really be a threat.
Mikko Rantanen just above-average vs. Flyers?
Yeah, this is the biggest jinx ever but throughout his entire career, Mikko Rantanen has been able to just average a point per game against the Flyers. Seventeen games and 10 goals and 17 points. Obviously, that is still very good considering that includes the time before he really became one of the best wingers in the world. But just looking at how he’s preyed over teams like the Vancouver Canucks (33 points in 22 games) or even fellow Metropolitan Division teams like the Washington Capitals (21 points in 16 games) and it sort of pops out that Rantanen is just a point per game against Philadelphia.
Who’s next?
Last night it was the Christian Dvorak, Trevor Zegras, and Owen Tippett line that literally scored every single goal for the Flyers. So, who’s next? Is it Michkov and Konecny’s turn to take on the offensive burden? Maybe Bobby Brink will take advantage of the Stars not really noticing him out there? Just maybe we’ll have Garnet Hathaway score a couple goals just because it’s the sport of hockey and weird stuff happens.
